EAA says a judgment against it stemming from an accident at an unnamed regional fly-in resulted in the controversial review of its association with such events. In a statement issued a week after AVweb reported that the annual Texas Fly-In at Hondo was being scrapped because of the proposed policies, EAA said the review was necessary because the judgment threatened insurance coverage of its core activities. “The damage award affected the evaluation of EAA’s coverage in the insurance market and created a situation that, if not addressed, would lead to very significant and unsustainable increases in the cost of EAA’s insurance coverage at the levels required for all of its programs,” the statement said.
EAA said the judgment resulted from the apparent mistaken belief that EAA was directly involved with the organization and running of the fly-in even though it and all others besides Oshkosh are independent events. EAA did allow the events to piggyback on its umbrella insurance coverage but that will have to end because of the lawsuit. It also appears that EAAs name or logo will not be approved for use in the name of each event. EAA says it wants to remain involved in the fly-ins through “sponsorship of specific areas, such as forums, workshops, aircraft judging and awards banquets, among others” and it will continue to promote the events in its print and online publications.
